Posts Tagged ‘Hendy Avenue Consulting’
Announcing an Exciting Leadership Transition at Hendy Avenue Consulting!
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
We have exciting news to share: Sarah is passing the baton and the wonderful Jessica Wilson has been named the new President of Hendy Avenue Consulting!
Jessica Wilson has been a cornerstone of the Hendy Avenue Consulting team since 2017, bringing unparalleled expertise, dedication, and vision to our work. Jess is an experienced consultant, school district leader, school board member, and all around warrior for kids. Her leadership has been instrumental in driving our mission forward, and I am confident that she will guide Hendy to even greater heights. Jess has the full support of the entire Hendy team and is looking forward to working with them to continue to improve our client support and grow our impact.
I am extremely proud of the Hendy team and the work we’ve done together over the past 12 years. We’ve grown from me and my laptop, a long contact list and some big ideas, to a thriving organization with an unparalleled team of education consultants and coaches. Together, we’ve served more than 40 school systems and facilitated multiple cohorts for more than 50 district and charter leaders. We are trusted partners to education leaders across the country, supporting schools and districts with their talent and academic strategies, people development, leadership transitions, curriculum changes, and initiative implementation. We have accomplished this all within the tumultuous time of the last decade including a global pandemic, racial equity movements, the introduction of AI, political divides, culture wars, and so much more. We’ve gained long-time partners and friends in this work as we’ve provided a unique level of arm-in-arm support to school and district leaders.
I’m particularly proud of not just what we’ve accomplished, but how we’ve approached it. For Hendy, the bottom-line has always been about improving educational opportunities for kids by supporting the teachers and leaders they depend on. We approach our work with curiosity, integrity, kindness, and commitment, resulting in strong relationships and multi-year engagements with our partners. We’ve also created a work environment where experts in their field can make a difference while maintaining autonomy and flexibility to meet the needs of their personal lives. And we have a great time doing it.
Thank you so much to the very best team I could ever hope for. Jess, Jeremy, Erica, Rachel, and Grant. I admire and adore each of you and cannot thank you enough for the magic you’ve each brought to the Hendy team.
Looking ahead, I will continue as an Executive Advisor to Hendy, supporting the team’s continued success, cultivating opportunities, investigating challenges and solutions in the field, and exploring new ways to impact our collective mission of educational opportunity for underserved children. The challenges we face at this moment are extraordinary and I look forward to finding new ways to contribute to more equitable and opportunity-filled lives for all.
It has been an honor to partner with so many of you to improve educational opportunities for students and empower leaders to create lasting change. I want to extend my deepest gratitude to all of you who have supported Hendy Avenue Consulting, and me personally, throughout this journey. Your partnership and trust have been invaluable, and I look forward to supporting the continued success of Hendy Avenue Consulting under Jess’s capable leadership.
Please join me in congratulating Jess on her well-deserved new role. And please reach out to her directly if the Hendy team can support you in the upcoming school year: jessicawilson@hendyavenue.com.
I am excited for the road ahead and remain deeply committed to the mission and vision of Hendy Avenue Consulting – and to you as our partners and friends.
With gratitude and optimism,
Sarah Rosskamm
Founder, Hendy Avenue Consulting
sarahrosskamm@hendyavenue.com
415-577-2789
The CAO Cohort: Where Vision Meets Action
In education leadership, the role of Chief Academic Officer stands at a critical intersection: where strategic vision meets daily implementation, where data meets human experience, and where individual school success connects to systemic change. Yet too often, CAOs navigate these challenges in isolation.
A Different Kind of Professional Community
The CAO Cohort breaks this isolation by bringing together academic leaders from high-performing charter networks who share an unwavering commitment to educational equity. This isn’t just another professional development program – it’s a carefully curated community where every member brings both expertise to share and a willingness to grow.
What Sets Our Members Apart
Our cohort members share core values that drive their work:
- They embrace the power of partnership, recognizing that collective wisdom surpasses individual insight.
- They maintain the flexibility to adapt their thinking while staying true to their core mission.
- They welcome productive friction, knowing that growth comes from being both challenged and supported.
- They freely share their resources and best practices, lifting all boats in the pursuit of excellence.
Real Impact Through Structured Collaboration
Throughout the year, cohort members engage in:
- Regular data review cycles that inform strategic planning
- Collaborative problem-solving around shared challenges
- Resource exchange that accelerates implementation
- Deep discussions about equity and anti-racist practices
- Strategic planning sessions for systematic improvement
Beyond Professional Development
What truly distinguishes this cohort is its impact beyond individual growth. When CAOs collaborate at this level, their insights and solutions ripple across multiple school networks, potentially impacting thousands of students’ lives.
Join a Community of Change-Makers
The CAO Cohort isn’t just about professional growth – it’s about joining a movement of leaders committed to transforming education through collaboration, equity, and excellence. If you’re ready to both contribute to and learn from a community of visionary academic leaders, we invite you to learn more about joining our next cohort.
Defining and Developing Teaching Excellence: The Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric
Over the past 12 years, Hendy Avenue Consulting has partnered with numerous school systems to set a vision for excellent teaching, create and pilot instructional rubrics based on this vision, and implement those rubrics to support high-quality teacher coaching and development. These partnerships led to the creation of the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric, now freely available under a Creative Commons license on Hendy’s website. Five school systems across the country have already adopted some version of the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric. While Hendy tailors each engagement to the specific needs of the school system, Hendy’s close partnership with a large, multi-region charter school network served as the initial catalyst for what is now the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric.
The Challenge: The charter school network faced a significant challenge: their four regions were using different rubrics to define and develop excellent teaching. This inconsistency created disparities in how teachers were coached and supported across the network and missed opportunities to use the data to inform network priorities. The network reached out to Hendy to help them lead a project to create, pilot, and implement a unified vision of teaching excellence, aligning teacher development across all regions while maintaining high academic and instructional standards.
Setting the Foundation for Success: Hendy began with careful attention to organizational dynamics and stakeholder buy-in. The charter school network and Hendy established a clear RAPID decision-making framework and identified key stakeholders across departments whose participation would be crucial. This preliminary phase proved essential, establishing both the authority and the limitations within which the team would operate. This also ensured that the rubric development would center on what is most critical for students in classrooms: high-quality teaching and learning.
Creating a Common Vision of Excellence: Hendy convened a diverse subcommittee to lead the project, representing various roles (including talent, curriculum and instruction, and data), schools, tenure levels, and demographic backgrounds. This diverse representation ensured the rubric would be a practical tool for coaching and development. The subcommittee met regularly, engaging in deep discussions about what constitutes excellent teaching facilitated by Hendy team members. The group took a methodical approach to creating the new rubric. They began by discussing what excellent teaching looked like in different contexts and establishing a “blue sky” vision for teacher development. These conversations revealed both the strengths of existing approaches and the opportunities that a unified vision could provide. They conducted a detailed crosswalk of existing frameworks provided by Hendy, identifying the key elements that drove teacher growth across all contexts. This analysis helped the committee work with Hendy to create a rubric that would be both comprehensive and practical for everyday use. The team iterated on the rubric several times, testing different domains and indicators across different classrooms and contexts.
Piloting and Refining the Vision: The pilot phase demonstrated the charter school network’s commitment to thoughtful implementation. Hendy launched the pilot with an orientation webinar, introducing the rubric to the broader community and outlining its purpose, structure, and role in teacher development. This helped build understanding and buy-in. The webinar provided practical guidance for leaders to begin using the rubric while allowing for refinement based on their experiences. Recognizing the unique needs of certain teaching populations, Hendy and the charter team specifically engaged Special Education teachers, fine arts instructors, PE teachers, and preK educators through targeted surveys and focus groups. This ensured their perspectives would shape the final framework. Pilot schools used the rubric in multiple contexts. Leadership teams conducted walkthroughs using the new framework at least 2-3 times that spring, testing its effectiveness in different classroom settings. School leaders also used the framework in coaching conversations with teachers, providing valuable insights. Throughout the pilot, Hendy maintained a strong feedback loop, gathering input through structured surveys and focus groups and used this information to make adjustments. Critically, Hendy and the committee closed the feedback loop by communicating changes back to participants, explicitly connecting their input to specific modifications. Leaders found the rubric helpful in structuring coaching conversations, providing a common language for discussing teaching excellence. They also identified areas where additional guidance was needed, particularly around using the rubric to support different types of teachers and content areas.
Implementation, Training, and Capacity Building: The summer marked the transition to full implementation. In partnership with Hendy, the large, multi-region charter school network invested heavily in developing the capacity of those who would use the rubric. The implementation began with establishing clear systems and structures. Hendy worked with school leaders to determine coaching roles, the frequency of observations and coaching conversations, and how teachers would engage with the rubric. The subsequent training program facilitated by Hendy was comprehensive and sustained, extending through the summer and following school year. It began with foundation training, where coaches learned not just about the rubric’s structure but also how to use it as a tool for development. These interactive sessions included practicing with instructional video analysis and guiding coaching conversations. Quarterly practice-based sessions facilitated by Hendy throughout the school year reinforced learning. Each session followed a thoughtful progression: leaders would study specific indicators, analyze teaching videos, engage in calibration discussions, and practice coaching conversations. The embedded certification process was particularly effective. Rather than a one-time event, it was a supportive process allowing for multiple attempts and providing additional support when needed.
Legacy and Evolution: The Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric: Hendy’s work on creating and implementing this charter school network’s rubric significantly influenced the development of the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric. The Hendy rubric builds upon the successful elements of the charter school network’s process while introducing innovations. Like its predecessor, the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric organizes teaching excellence into four domains, each guided by an essential question. It adds “Core Teacher Skills” for each indicator, providing specific, actionable guidance for teacher development. This helps bridge the gap between identifying excellent teaching and developing teachers’ practice. The Hendy rubric also refines the approach to measuring impact, maintaining the charter school network’s focus on student outcomes while creating clearer developmental progressions. This helps teachers and coaches identify specific next steps for growth.
Want to learn more about the Hendy Instructional Excellence framework? Visit our website or email Jessica Wilson!
Unlocking Excellence in Teaching with the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric
At Hendy Avenue Consulting, we believe every child deserves excellent instruction, every day, in every classroom. This foundational belief has guided our work with schools and districts across the country for over a decade. Now, we’re thrilled to share a tool that embodies this commitment: the Instructional Excellence Rubric.
This free, equity-focused tool is designed to provide a clear and actionable vision for teaching and learning. With its detailed structure and emphasis on both teacher actions and student outcomes, the rubric is more than a framework—it’s a roadmap for achieving excellence in classrooms.
At Hendy, we have had the privilege of partnering with school systems across the country as they endeavor to implement observation rubrics that support great coaching and development for teachers, and improved outcomes for students. The Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric is the product of several engagements over several years. With our partners, we saw the need for a higher quality observation rubric that better met school systems’ needs, and we worked to create this rubric in partnership with teachers and school leaders from across the country. We’ve supported several systems to successfully implement versions of this rubric, and have seen the positive impact it has had on schools. We are excited now to make this rubric available, for free, to everyone for the benefit of schools, teachers, and students.
What Makes the Instructional Excellence Rubric Unique?
The Instructional Excellence Rubric stands apart because it balances rigorous academics with social-emotional learning, ensuring that all aspects of a student’s success are prioritized. It reflects years of experience working directly with teachers, leaders, and schools to define what truly works in classrooms.
Here’s how the rubric is structured:
- Classroom Culture: Focuses on creating a predictable, joyful, and equitable environment that maximizes learning time.
- Lesson Content & Implementation: Emphasizes rigorous, purposeful, and differentiated instruction to meet the needs of all students.
- Student Thinking: Highlights the importance of students doing the thinking, speaking, writing, and creating during lessons.
- Responsiveness to Learning: Centers on using feedback and data to adapt teaching and ensure every student grows and succeeds.
Each domain contains clear indicators of excellence, articulated across four levels of performance. These descriptors help educators identify what success looks like and provide actionable steps for improvement.
How Can the Rubric Help You?
Whether you’re a school leader, instructional coach, or system administrator, the rubric can:
- Provide a shared language for excellence across your school or district.
- Guide teacher coaching and development with clear, equity-focused expectations.
- Support classroom observations that prioritize student outcomes.
It’s a comprehensive tool for anyone committed to improving teaching and learning at scale.
The Power of Training and Support
While the rubric is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, its full potential is unlocked through thoughtful implementation and training. That’s where Hendy Avenue Consulting can help.
We offer tailored training and support packages to ensure schools and systems:
- Norm around expectations: Build consistency in how the rubric is used across classrooms.
- Develop coaching capacity: Equip leaders to use the rubric as a tool for meaningful teacher development.
- Customize for your context: Adapt the rubric to align with the unique needs and goals of your school or district.
Our team has a proven track record of helping educators implement tools like this successfully, driving real change in teaching and learning.
Ready to Get Started?
The Instructional Excellence Rubric is available for free download:
Let us help you bring it to life. Reach out to Jess to schedule a call!
Together, we can ensure every child experiences the excellent instruction they deserve.
Leaders, It’s Okay to Take Off the Cape
Leadership is difficult in good times. In times of crisis, this difficulty grows exponentially. This notion has become even more clear through my work supporting a Chief-level leader through the restructuring of a network of schools. This leader’s plate was full before the COVID crisis hit, and their responsibility and leadership scope has essentially doubled as a result of COVID: becoming responsible for orchestrating the network’s response to the abrupt closure of schools, and most significantly designing and implementing virtual instruction. Daily they are responding to questions and concerns from families, teachers, staff, and principals, and are looked to by staff to both assuage fears and set a concrete vision and plan for next steps.
My client reflected on having to spend all of their time being “on.” Conference call after call, zoom meeting after meeting, this leader has to be the one with all the answers, or the plan to find the answers. Staff call them for advice and support, or to complain about the way other team members are responding. And my client has to be there to listen, console and plan. All day, every day.
Yes, great leaders provide security and vision to their teams to manage through crises, but fulfilling that role is incredibly draining. Last week, my client and I reflected on how nice it is for them to have a chance to “take off the cape” during our check-ins: to not have to have all the answers, to be able to complain about how difficult all of this is, and to express disappointment, fear and anger honestly. I was honored that my client saw our check-in as the time for them to take that guard down and to be able to react to and reflect on how the work was weighing on them. It also provided an opportunity for us to brainstorm ways that we can handle the burden of leadership to meet the needs of staff without burning out.
I also saw this as a reflection of what we at Hendy pride ourselves on: walking arm-in-arm with our clients as they design solutions and create programs to better serve teachers and kids. Sometimes that relationship means gently pushing our clients to do something differently; other times it means accelerating full speed ahead on executing a plan. In these crazy times, it has sometimes meant simply providing a space for our clients to “take off their capes”, to reflect honestly about the difficulties of being a leader in crisis, and to know that leading others requires us to take care of ourselves.
-Jess
Consulting in the Time of Corona
We are all adjusting. For some, it’s a shift to full-time work from home; for others it’s becoming first-time teachers helping their children stay on track while out of school, whether it be modeling the concept of multiplication with blocks or explaining how the ghost in Hamlet provides examples of foreshadowing; others are essential workers adjusting to added spotlight and stress during the COVID crisis.
And then, there are those who are sick themselves. For almost three weeks in March, this was me. It started with a couple days feeling a bit more tired than usual, but soon turned into a high fever, full body aches, exhaustion, ongoing chills and night sweats. Once the fever broke after four days, I remained exhausted and developed chest tightness and a persistent, dry cough. Around day 13, after watching four seasons of The Sopranos, two seasons of The Great British Baking Show, and of course, Tiger King, I started to feel more like myself, but the cough lingered. I inched back to work, having been completely detached from my computer, let alone clients, the entire time. Finally, at three weeks, I had no symptoms, was back to work fully and celebrated, feeling truly thankful that I never had breathing difficulty or required hospitalization.
I share these less than fun symptoms for the sole reason of letting others know that they are not alone. The virus is rough–my case was “mild”–and takes a long time to clear; but don’t lose faith on day 7 and of course, keep in touch with your doctor regularly to plan your care.
Reflecting on my experience produced a few cliche-heavy reminders for me, that may be helpful to consider if you are ill or caring for a sick loved-one.
- Put your oxygen mask on first. I was completely wiped out and felt physically terrible and emotionally defeated. I hate not feeling productive, am terrible at asking for help, and miserable being dependent on others; but my reality required I not only stop working, managing meals, and walking the dog, but prioritize recovering above all else and accept that it was 100% okay to do so. I had to tell myself, “I will be better for it and my work will be better for it”.
- Communicate. When sick, we often rely on the help of loved-ones around us. Remember: they can’t read your mind. You have to communicate your feelings and needs, and they have to ask a lot of questions to care for you. Be direct, but kind, remember that everyone is stressed and living in uncertainty. Worry shows itself in lots of ways, so give everyone in your life a bit of grace. Be honest with people about the type and frequency of communication. If you want a text message from your 5 best friends each day, let them know how much it means when they check in. If you don’t want to have your phone buzzing all night, let the frequent callers in your life know the schedule you’re trying to keep and when you plan to next reach out.
- Have a plan. Dealing with any illness is stressful, but COVID-19 in particular is new with little scientific study and a tendency to change in intensity quite quickly. I recommend having a plan in place for any potential escalation of symptoms. Specifically, know what hospital/clinic you will go to and how, list who you will contact, plan for any child or pet-care implications, and have already-packed overnight bags by the door.
- Go slow to go fast. Once I started to feel well, I wanted life to immediately return to normal; I longed for the sense of accomplishment from completing a task, a mid-day bike-ride through Prospect Park, a nice dinner with a glass of red wine. I had these dreams, while simultaneously barely able to make it through the day without a 3 hour nap. To those of you sick or recovering, go slow and be kind to yourself. No, things will not be “normal” for a while, but the more you honor your physical and emotional needs now, the sooner you’ll be back to feeling like yourself.
-Grant
Jeremy Abarno, Welcome To The Hendy Team!
We’re thrilled to announce that Jeremy Abarno, former Chief Talent Officer of DREAM Charter Schools in NYC, joined the Hendy team in October 2019. Jeremy will specialize in school leader coaching and development, network leader coaching (especially talent and academics), curriculum development and training, and comprehensive talent strategy and implementation. Jeremy is the smart, thoughtful person you want to help you solve problems and we are so happy he’s bringing his many talents to support our partner organizations and to continue to make our Hendy team stronger.
Jeremy started as a teacher in East Harlem in 2000 and has dedicated his career to the children of New York City. He served as the Principal at PAVE Academy public charter school. Jeremy was the Managing Director of Mathematics and later Talent at Ascend Public Charter Schools in Brooklyn, a network of nine schools serving more than 4,000 students in central Brooklyn. Before joining Hendy Avenue, Jeremy was the Chief Talent Officer of DREAM in East Harlem. In this role, Jeremy led the development of DREAM’s overall talent strategy including recruitment, professional development, workforce planning and human resources for DREAM’s schools, afterschool and community programs. Jeremy holds a Master’s in Special Education from City College and a School Building Leader license from Baruch. He is a graduate of New York University in elementary education. Jeremy lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three children.
Listen Up: Hendy Avenue on EdPOP Podcast
Curious to learn more about Hendy Avenue Consulting? Our very own Jessica Wilson sat down with the host of EdPOP to talk about our mission, recent projects and how talent strategy can make the difference for kids across the country.
Round 3: Looking Back, Looking Ahead
In our previous two posts (here and here), Sarah and Grant shared reflections on the past year and projects they are looking forward to in the coming months. To bring us home, Jessica shares lessons learned on working through complexity and opportunities to lead with appreciation.
What I learned: I have spent most of my career in education supporting and working in large bureaucracies, namely large urban districts and state education agencies. Just prior to joining Hendy Avenue I was in senior leadership in one of the largest school districts in Ohio. Each of the organizations I’ve worked with in the past have faced challenges, and I tended to chalk those up to organizational complexity, and the difficulty that comes with arriving at solutions when you must invest a large number of people and perspectives in the strategies. After spending my first year with Hendy working with diverse organizations and districts, I came to appreciate that the challenges I faced in past contexts are not so different from those faced by clients of all sizes. I’ve learned that it’s often not only the scale and bureaucracy that causes the challenges we face in K-12 education, and that we can learn a lot from organizations of different sizes and types in finding solutions. As we partner with our clients this year, we are excited to continue to bring lessons learned from all shapes and sizes of districts, states, schools and networks to arrive at solutions to problems.
What I’m excited about: I am so happy to get to continue to partner with Independence Mission Schools in Philadelphia. Having attended Catholic schools as a child, I have a great appreciation and admiration for the work IMS is doing for some of Philadelphia’s most deserving students. We learned a lot from IMS’ leaders and teachers as we supported them last fall to implement their new instructional framework, and to modify that framework to fit their Catholic culture. Now, I’m excited to continue to support IMS leaders as they deeply invest in teachers through teacher leadership. This project has been a welcome opportunity to explore how others are solving a problem, learn more about the context, strengths and opportunities in IMS schools, and devise a program that makes a difference for teachers, and students, across the network.
Round 2: Looking Back, Looking Ahead
In our last post, Looking Back, Looking Ahead: Lessons Learned and What’s to Come in 2018-19, our founder Sarah shared insights on the difficulty of leading change and the excitement around re-engaging with one of our first partners.
This week, we hear from Grant:
What I learned: Historian and philosopher Will Durant said, “we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Durant’s much-quoted line rings true in most endeavors, especially in efforts to drive change. Over the past year, we’ve seen the power of habitual communication–to teachers, school leaders, regional administrators–in sharing consistent messages, building shared understanding and demonstrating competence. Nothing derails stakeholder buy-in more than mixed messages or a lack of information! Habitual communication requires consistent content, format, and tone through a single channel at a regular, expected frequency. In Houston, we’ve supported KIPP in the development of a weekly message to School Leaders around implementation of Teacher Pathways. Each Friday, leaders know they will receive updates, shout outs, resources, and reminders to guide the week ahead. In Delaware, we’ve launched a monthly newsletter for district leaders on DPAS_II, the state’s teacher evaluation system, with a consistent agenda including deadlines and professional development opportunities. These habitual communications do more than provide information, they demonstrate competence and care for colleagues and trust between stakeholders. As you think about the programs you’re leading, consider how you can habitualize communication as a repeatedly do.
What I’m excited about: In 2014, KIPP Texas – Austin began a comprehensive effort to reshape teacher effectiveness and retention through the development of a Teacher Career Pathway. Knowing that great teachers drive student achievement, Austin’s Teacher Career Pathway develops, recognizes and rewards excellent educators so they will get better and stay longer. This fall, the first cohort of Distinguished Teachers will be announced; a group of accomplished educators who have demonstrated consistent gap-closing results for kids, impeccable teaching practice and exemplary professional contributions to the school community. We cannot wait to celebrate these remarkable educators!